501 shelter to port clinton

the 501 shelter got a little strange last night. there were two non-hikers there, an older woman who slept all afternoon, and man who hung out with the hikers. at some point nearing dusk, the older woman started talking, and she was a little nuts. at some point the man mentioned she had thrown all his stuff out of the shelter a few nights before. ultimately there was a small confrontation where one of the hikers told the woman she was making him uncomfortable. she told the non-hiker man he was evil and called all the hikers a “wolf pack”. thankfully this was all on her way out the door.

the non-hiker man seemed to only own the clothes on his back. he stayed the night and slept on the bare floor. he sort of hid it, but i know because i heard him come in without a light after dark. i wasn’t sure where he went, but later i had to pee and almost stepped on him on my way out. when i came back in 30 seconds later, he was gone. it took me some time to figure out he was under the picnic table.

at 05:30 someone’s alarm went off and the man woke up and had the worst sounding cough i’ve ever heard. he coughed every minute for about half an hour before je finally got up and went outside. hopefully it wasn’t COVID, because if so, we’re all fucked.

i was on trail by 07:00. it wasn’t raining as the weather had said it would be. i checked the weather and the new report said no rain today! wahoo!

it rained hard most of the morning. yep you read that and the preceding sentence correctly. fuck the weather people. they suck.

i chatted with magz a bit as i had service and it was the weekend until it started raining so hard i couldn’t really hear her anymore. fuck the weather people. they suck.

the trail was pretty flat all day. despite being north of the 501 the rocks weren’t bad. there were certainly some sections that were rocky and tough, but i still don’t know why pennsylvania gets the ‘rocksylvania’ label.

around noon i stopped at a shelter, and while i tried to figure out whether i wanted to walk the .3 miles rocket walked up and was definitely walking it, so i joined him. another hiker, ‘cruiser’ who we’ve seen in a few shelters recently joined us. while we ate, the sun came out!

the afternoon was mostly dry. there was still the occasional rain, but probably only 20 minutes total. i called magz again and kept her company while she reorganized the basement.

as i approached port clinton, the trail suddenly pitched downward at such an insane angle i was having trouble not just sliding down it. the last 1000’ feet were a brutal descent, followed by one of the more treacherous rock staircases i’ve ever traversed.

rocket and i walked through port clinton to the pavilion which is listed as a shelter on the AT. we were then confused because signage said it had a mandatory $10 donation. first off, AT shelters are free. period. second, i don’t think the church who runs the pavilion knows what donation means.

we worked out our plan for the next few days and waited for the shuttle to cabela’s, which arrived at 17:15. on the way, the driver explained that this cabela’s was the largest outfitter on the east coast and dwarfed all sales of every other company. at cabela’s i tried to excange some darn tough socks, but even the “largest outfitter on the east coast” didn’t stock a single pair of XXL socks. come on, seriously? i then tried to find some xero sandals. nope. even their camping food selection was mediocre. you know what they had tons of though? fishing rods and guns.

rocket and i walked across the whatever you call it when the concept of a mall gets so big you have to drive to each of the stores instead of conveniently walking. capitalopolis? whatever, they suck. stop buying shit you don’t need, people! and for fuck’s sake, get your fat car clown ass out of your stupid giant dinosaur burning vehicle and walk. sorry, i digress. americans are gross.

rocket and i headed for wal-mart, but found an aldi on the way for our resupply. it was nee to us and felt a little weird, but it had avocados and fresh fruit, so we were happy. we booked it back to cabela’s to catch the shuttle and ran into mixed up who was home with his friends for a day.

the shuttle dropped us off at the pavilion and we headed to the hotel for dinner and yuengling beers. i got a sort of cheese steak, but with marinara sauce. it was tasty. after dinner and beer, we headed out and rocket noticed a spigot on the side of the building. the rainy day had the insides of our lower legs caked mud. he walked over and began bathing. i joined as well. some patrons came out to find us bathing in the hotel parking lot spigot. proud hiker trash.

as of this moment, no one has come to the pavilion demanding their $10 “donation”.